COUNTRY CONNECTION: Winning without grace...

Twelve years ago, Pearl Jam - one of the few rock bands from the 90’s to remain relevant today - won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Eddie Vedder, lead singer and general malcontent, said in his acceptance speech, “I don’t know what this means; I don’t think this means anything....thanks, I guess.”

Vedder was trying to make a statement about awards shows in general - how can one piece of art be better than another? That goes back to our Bucky Covington discussion a few weeks ago. Eye of the beholder, one man’s trash, so on, so forth. But at the same time, you’re being given an award, perhaps not so much that your song is “better” than another band’s, but that your song was rather good and the Powers That Be would like to recognize this. So even if you don’t agree with the concept, you can at least appreciate the gesture and just say “Thank you! This was really nice of you.”

What does this have to do with country music? The answer lies in the last few days, where Kenny Chesney accepted the ACM award for Entertainer of the Year, his fourth such award and placing him level with Garth Brooks. The award was decided by public voting this year for the first time, and Chesney leveraged that to the fullest. After lobbying on his MySpace with banners asking fans to “bring it home for KC,” he accepted the award and then blasted the process in interviews with reporters.

“I don’t think it’s right that [the public] picks the one award that means the most, that all the artists sacrifice the most for...They’ve taken it from what the award really represents (and turned it) into a sweepstakes to see who can push people’s buttons the hardest on the Internet,” Chesney lamented after the show.

No, Kenny, the words you’re looking for are “thank” and “you,” preferably in that order.

This surpasses Eddie Vedder’s dismissal of his Grammy by a country mile. The Grammys are one thing; this is a voter-supported award. Chesney was chosen by the people, or at least a dedicated and fanatical base, to be Entertainer of the Year. For some reason, this takes away from what the award represents? Granted, things turn into a beauty pageant of sorts, but still. They like you. They like you enough to believe that you are, in fact, the Entertainer of the Year. Just because some dudes in suits from Nashville didn’t deem it to be so - you know, like the other three awards you’ve won - doesn’t lessen the impact.

Some people simply don’t know how to accept a compliment. I’ll admit to be guilty of it myself at times, but I’ve learned in my travels that people really just want to show appreciation when you do something that makes them happy. You can accept it gracefully, or you can kick ‘em in the teeth. One way will win you more friends in the general populace; the other will win you more friends in the dental community.

No disrespect to the dentists, but teeth-kicking simply should not be the option.

Paul Kent hosts Thunder After Dark, 7 p.m. - midnight weekdays and the Saturday Night Special, Saturdays 7 p.m. - midnight on Thunder 104.5 Everything Country and More.